Politics In 60 Seconds: What You Need To Know Right Now

1. U.S. stock index
futures fell on Sunday. Negotiations on reducing the deficit and
raising the debt ceiling continue to be unproductive.
No deal seems imminent (or even within reach). The prospect
of default -- once consider an impossible outcome --
looms.

2. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that
resolution to the debt ceiling impasse would necessarily require
a two-stage deal, with an initial stopgap agreement to reassure
investors and more fundamental reform left until later. ‘’There
is going to be a two-stage process. It is not physically possible
to do all of this in one step,” he told Fox News.

4. Moody's downgraded Greece by three notches to Ca, Athens’
lowest rating and one that
implies the country is already in default. Moody's also
warned that last week’s set of measures to shore up the eurozone
could lead to downgrades of the creditor countries because of the
precedent for future bail-outs.

7. Karl W. Eikenberry spent five years -- two tours as a general
and one as the US Ambassador -- serving in Afghanistan. He was
perhaps the leading skeptic of US policy in Afghanistan.
He was exceptionally good at his job.